


Eyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams

by Zee XI (Zookimer)



Series: The Reformation and Subsequent Heroisms of Evelyn Antony Stark [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Genderbending, Nick Fury is my favorite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-27 20:12:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zookimer/pseuds/Zee%20XI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Between the idea<br/>And the reality<br/>Between the motion<br/>And the act"<br/>- T S Eliot, 'The Hollow Men'</p><p>Or, in which Tony Stark makes a few discoveries, not all of them scientific.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams

Donuts. Delicious. Randy's Donuts, better. Eating Randy's donuts while sitting in the middle of the Randy's Donut, still in full suit (sans helmet plus sunglasses), with a hangover that was kicking her ass after having getting thoroughly smashed and then a best-friend beat-down the night before? On top of the death-by-living thing?

Priceless. Even by her standards. 

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to please exit the donut." called a voice from the ground

Tony looked down. Nick Fury. That asshole that looked like Pirate Mace Windu, worked for SHIELD. He could probably kick her ass right now, what with the hangover and the poison in her veins.

She hopped down, employed the thrusters just enough to not jar her landing. It didn't work as well as she'd hoped; she still thudded down a little too much, enought to jolt her and add to her headache.

Fury held a door for her, ushering her into the Randy's. "Ladies first."

"Shut up." She replied, and flopped into the nearest booth, head resting on the arm she'd propped on the table. "What do you want?"

Fury slid into the seat opposite her, "I wanted to talk to you about the Avengers initiative."

Tony groaned. This again. "No, no, I told you before. I don't wanna join your super secret stitch-and-bitch."

"Hmm. Right. Because you do everything yourself," Fury took a sip of his coffee(where did he pull that from?!), smirking, "Remind me, how's that working out?"

"It, um-" Tony didn't know how to follow that up, her head was still pounding like a bass drum, "Look, I'm sorry, do I focus on the patch or the eye? Cause, see, I can't tell if you're real, or if I'm still completely smashed or I'm dreaming or if you're a hallucination and someone slipped me something or what."

"I am very real," replied Fury evenly, "I am the realest man you're ever gonna meet."

A snort on her part, because "Alright, dude, but you're really not my type. My type is more..." She gestured at his torso for a few seconds before she thought of the word, "boobs. Mostly. Where's the staff here?"

As soon as she turned her head to look, Fury said "Ooh, that's not looking so good." He almost had the decency to sound concerned.

Tony leveled a deadpan stare at the man. "Been. Worse." She took a sip of coffee. Ick. She actually hated coffee, but she needed the caffine and she wasn't sure she could keep down something as sugary as soda or something. 

Fury's attention caught on something behind her, just as a very familiar voice started talking. "We've secured the perimeter, but I wouldn't recommend holding it much longer." 

Natalie Rushman in a catsuit walked up from behind Tony. Well, not a costume catsuit, but it might as well have been. 

"You're... fired." Tony decided on that, over a few choice adjectives, simply because she doubted the integrity of her word choice. Hangover. Not a good time to be funny.

"That's not up to you." Natalie(!?) sat down next to Fury, studying Tony intently. 

"Tony, this is Agent Natasha Romanoff." Fury introduced.

"When SHIELD found out you were sick, they assigned me to monitor your progress in combating the toxin."

Tony rolled her eyes, "Yeah, great, well you're doing a fine job wasting resources, Nicky-boy. You should apologize to Miss Romanoff, she's probably got more interesting assignments to attend to."

"Look, Tony," said Fury, "You've been busy. Made your girl CEO, giving away your stuff. You let your boy Rhodes fly off with your suit - "

" - 'Let' nothing, Rhodey went in there and took it."

"He just 'took' it? Lil' brother walked in, kicked your ass, and 'took' your suit?" He looked to Natasha, "Is that even possible?"

Natasha never even looked away from Tony. It was actually starting to make her a little uncomfortable, it was like Natasha never even blinked. "Well, according to Ms. Stark's database, the suits have to be programmed to receive and respond to any person who might use them, and only Ms. Stark can enter new candidates in the accepted personel roster." said the spy.

Tony sighed. "What do you people want from me?"

Fury didn't respond, and instead gestured to Natasha, who stood up and, quicker than Tony could watch (she still blamed the hangover,) jabbed her in the neck with a hypodermic needle. 

"Ow, god, can you not be horrible for five minutes?" whined Tony, "Whatever happened to informed consent? What did you just give me?"

"Lithium dioxide. Should help take the edge off," answered Natasha.

True enough, she was starting to feel less shaky. She hadn't even realized she'd been shaky in the first place. "Hmm. Great. Thanks. Send me off with a few cases of that, I'll be fine."

"It's not a cure, just a palliative," said Fury, looking at the rash that had, until a few seconds ago, been spiderwebbing up the side of her neck. "Looks like it's not gonna be an easy fix."

"You think I don't know that?" Tony snapped. "I've tried everything. Every combination, every permutation of every known element, and I came up with zilch. No replacement for palladium, no potion or pill that can combat the symptoms. I'm telling you, I've tried everything I could think of and there's no solution."

"Well, I'm telling you, you haven't tried everything yet."  
  



End file.
